A week had passed and America was restoring his energy and becoming more healthy than he had been when he was first discovered in his half conscious, twitchy state. Due to these improvements in the young nation's health, as well as his increased amount of energy, Russia was finding the task of caring for him to be tiring. No, he wasn't trying to attack him or escape from his company, but attempting to feed him and care for his hygiene was becoming a hassle. Especially when it came to caring for his hair. Whenever he tried to comb his hair, America would always try to move away from him and swat the comb away. On the occasion where there was a small tangle and his caretaker accidentally caused him a bit of pain, in an attempt to rid his hair of it, he would wiggle around, and one time, he ended up elbowing Russia while doing this (but he wasn't angry with the young nation for doing this, as he understood it was only an accident). He sort of wished he'd combed the other nation's hair more often than once or twice a day. It was obvious the one he was caring for was not used to having his hair combed, and he'd been lying in bed all day every day for one and a half weeks now. The fact that he was laying down for long periods of time, as well as how thick his hair was, despite having been starved for two years, it was bound to be tangled easy despite it's short length. Combing it often would make it easier to take care of, and make America more comfortable with having his hair cared for, since he wouldn't have to deal with the pain of having a tangle tugged at every now and then. Besides, to him, he sometimes believed the other nation was trying to make his hair messy.
The fact that America had no care in the world for whether or not he was making himself appear unkempt only made the task of grooming him more tedious. Russia understood this was no fault of the one he was caring for, as he didn't have a clue that what he was doing was irritating and had never been taught to keep himself neat, but at the same time, he was losing his patience with this behavior.
Another factor, which had added stress to his day, was the fact that England needed to go somewhere all day and Canada was busy with some work of his own. This meant he would have to make all of the meals for America himself. Sure, he loved to cook, but when he was already busy and didn't have much time to sit down and rest, it became a chore to him. He wouldn't even mind having England make some of the meals, as long as he didn't touch the oven. At least America was able to enjoy his sandwiches and smoothies.
For once, he was actually happy when America fell asleep. Sure, having to care for a more energetic and uncivil adult for a day hadn't been the worst thing he had to deal with in his life, and he was sure it wasn't going to happen every day. He didn't understand why the other nation was being more difficult than he usually was. Though, he had guessed it might have had something to do with the fact that he'd introduced a bunch of concepts of everyday life to him, and that had ended up overwhelming him. Of course he wasn't going to understand everything right away, and it was understandable he was going to be a bit difficult if he didn't have a clue as to what he was supposed to do in these new events.
Russia did not take for granted the fact that the one he was caring for had fallen asleep early and spent every second he didn't have to be around him to try and make himself relax. Besides, he didn't have any paper work to do at that moment either, since he'd finished it during the day, so it was a rare occasion he'd rather not waste.
As time passed by, dark clouds covered the once clear sky, and it hadn't been long before a strike of lightening shot out of these clouds. The rumble of thunder that followed soon after startled America out of his peaceful slumber. Upon awakening from his pleasant dream, he searched the room with confusion as best as his blurry vision would allow him to; trying to figure out what the source of the sound was. Since the first rumble hadn't been too loud, though, he figured it was best to shrug off his anxiousness toward what ever the noise could be, and curled up with his head on the pillow in an attempt to fall asleep once more. Unfortunately, another strike of lightning lit up the sky; illuminating the room with it's whitish blue flash. This time, the rumble of thunder that followed afterwards was louder.
Lifting his head from the pillow, America sat up and tried fathom what the noise was, what it came from, and what the producer of the sound's motives were. He'd never recalled experiencing such a noise in his life, and he was growing nervous about why his surroundings were sometimes lighting up and rumbling. He was also confused about why there was a loud pitter patter accompanying this strange occurrence. He'd heard the unfamiliar sound a few times while he was being cared for by Russia, and it had always made him nervous, since he'd never experienced it before while he was still a prisoner of the scientists. The difference between the current situation, and the few times it had rained in the past, however, was the fact that his caretaker would express to him a few comforting gestures, in order to show the weather outside was nothing out of the ordinary, and that he didn't need to worry about what was going on. Even though he was still terrified of his caretaker, despite the fact that he'd shown him nothing but compassion and understanding toward his trauma and physical condition, he still wanted to be right next to him at that moment and to have him communicate to him through physical affection that he didn't need to be afraid of the foreign events going on outside.
America continued to hug his legs to his torso, while trying his best to keep himself together as the thunder from the rainstorm became louder and louder every time lightning struck. Whimpers were threatening to start pouring out of his mouth, but he tried to stifle them as best as he could. Much to his adversity, however, another rumble of thunder, this time deafening compared to the previous rumbles, caused America to lose it. He couldn't help but let out a short scream due to the fear. Tears were now sliding down his face and tickling his chin, but he didn't care. All he wanted was for whatever was causing the noise to go away.
As America continued to tremble on the corner of his bed, he wasn't even able to be the slightest bit relieved when hurried footstep approached him. Instead, he remained curled up in a ball, covering his ears with his hands in a futile attempt to block out any noise.
Aware of America's scream, Canada was not angry with having been interrupted from his work, in order to find out what was going on with America. Nor was Russia disappointed when his session of relaxation had been interrupted. Instead, they couldn't help but be worried for what had caused the poor nation to scream. What if he'd accidentally hurt himself?
When the two nations arrived in the room, Russia strode over to America's side, in order to try and figure out what was going on with him while Canada turned on the light, so he would be easier to examine. At first glance, the young nation didn't appear to be injured in any way. Instead, he appeared to only be scared. As Russia studied the other for any signs of injury for a few moments, he reached out his arms to gently urge America to uncurl himself, so he could be sure he wasn't suffering with any sort of pain or physical discomfort. However, as soon as Russia laid a hand on him, he had ended up immediately uncurling himself, and struck his caretaker before he even had time to react.
Russia held a hand to his cheek, as a bruising pain developed in the abused area of his face. At the sight of this sudden action, Canada acted on instinct, and made an attempt to lunge toward his brother in order to restrain him. However, he was halted from doing this, as the one who'd just been punched held out his arm as to motion him to not go any closer to the frightened nation. At first, the Canadian had been confused as to why he was being prevented from moving any closer to his brother, but when Russia glanced over at America, he could see a large amount of regret decorating his face. Considering the fact that Canada was, at the moment, unaware of the reason why he didn't want him to go any closer to the scared nation, he figured it was best to explain, "Don't restrain him, it's only going to end up scaring him even more. He realizes what he did, and he feels guilty for it, so it's not very likely that he'll do it again."
Russia put his arm down after he was finished speaking and slowly approached America once more. This time when he touched him, the other nation didn't react, and it wasn't long before the young nation was enveloped into a hug. Yet another rumble of thunder followed after a strike of lightning, which had caused the other nation to cling onto the one who was holding him as tightly as he could. While he continued to comfort America, Russia told Canada, "It seems as if the thunderstorm was really scaring him."
"Oh," was what Canada said in reply, before adding, "I was kind of able to guess that. Well, since it looks like you have this under control, I guess that you won't be needing me."
Russia didn't say anything as the shy nation walked out of the room and was oblivious to the fact that, even though he believed there were now only two people in the room, they were both still being watched. Instead, he continued to cuddle the trembling nation in his arms until the thunderstorm died down and when the one he was holding no longer appeared to be scared. He tried to stand up in order to leave, after feeling as if his job of comforting the scared nation had been complete, but he was prevented from doing this when the other nation grabbed his arm. He turned his head to gaze at America, only to find the poor nation was begging through his eyes for him to stay. A slight ache in his heart formed at the sight of those sweet, blue eyes pleading wanting his company, which made him figure he didn't have the heart to walk away from the other nation, and so he sat back down in the bed and pulled America into a hug.
At that point, America was too exhausted to care for the fact that Russia was a human and allowed himself to relax in the other nation's arms as his hair was being stroked. It wasn't long at all until this action lulled him to sleep.
As much as Russia wanted to stay with the young nation, now that he was comfortable holding him and had in fact wanted to cuddle with him that night, in case he became scarred again, he he suspected that England and Canada would probably not approve of this, and so he settled for lying America down on the bed and tucking him in. After that, he left the room, and resumed to reading the book he'd been reading before he ran up the stairs to help Alfred out. Somehow, the event ended up making him much more calm than when he first tried to make himself relax, but he didn't want to question this, and instead wanted to read as much as he could before going to bed.